I had my son in March 2011 as the ideal natural birth in a hospital. This time I wanted a home birth, but we can't afford the out of pocket. But we will be delivering at a hospital based birth center. Looking forward to my 2nd natural birth!!!
Our active toddler:
Born March 14, 2011

Excited for version 2.0:
BFP- 10/8/12
EDD: June 21, 2013

Re: Hi!
I'd like to hear, too! I'm planning a natural hospital birth and would love to hear your experience.
I don't remember if I ever posted my whole birth story here before.
Anyways, we did Bradley and I felt like I was both mentally and physically prepared for natural birth. I walked 2 miles the day I went into labor to see the St. Patty's Day parade. I labored at home and my labor progressed so quickly that my doula never made it to our house. I had pink tinged mucus around dinner time, started feeling contractions in my lower back as I cleaned the kitchen around 8. Starting paying attention to them around 9 pm. Btw 9-10 pm, I think I had 6 or 7. At 10 pm, we started using the contraction app and they were 5-6 minutes apart. Anyways, it just progressed very quickly. I went through transition at home and was even pushing at home. We lived incredibly close to the hospital. We waited longer than we planned, but in the end, it was the perfect timing. I showed up pushing. My first and only internal showed me fully dilated and +1 station. My doula was there, my husband was there, and I was a stubborn and prepared mama! I ignored the MW when she told me when to push. I took a big deep breath and it helped get his heart beat up where they wanted it. There wasn't time to push all of the interventions like a IV when you show up pushing! We arrived at the hospital at 1:30 am and he was born at 2:02. 5.5 hours of a fast labor mostly done at home. If you're not there, they can't mess with you!!
Oh and we forgot to print out the birth plan! I guess we didn't need it! But it was a good exercise for us to clearly articulate our wishes.